Uniform Swiftlet

The uniform swiftlet (Aerodramus vanikorensis), also known as the Vanikoro swiftlet or lowland swiftlet, is a gregarious, medium-sized swiftlet with a shallowly forked tail. The colouring is dark grey-brown, darker on the upperparts with somewhat paler underparts, especially on chin and throat. This species is widespread from the Philippines through Wallacea, New Guinea and Melanesia. It forages for flying insects primarily in lowland forests and open areas. It nests in caves where it uses its sense of echolocation, rare in birds, to navigate. (Wikipedia, general species account).

The uniform swift was formally described in 1832 by the French naturalists Jean Quoy and Joseph Gaimard from a specimen collected on the island of Vanikoro in the Solomon Islands. The nest is a shallow cup of mossy material and saliva, usually attached to a vertical surface of a cave wall in the completely dark zone. One or two white eggs form the clutch. They coined the binomial name Hirundo vanikorensis. (Wikipedia, general species account).